STAFFORD AIR & SPACE MUSEUM

The Stafford Air & Space Center is named in honor of Lt. General Thomas P. Stafford, a native of Weatherford, Oklahoma. Graduating from the United States Naval Academy, General Stafford is a recipient of the Congressional Space Medal of Honor along with many numerous other awards including a Television Emmy. A veteran of four space flights, he piloted Gemini VI, and commanded Gemini IX, Apollo 10, and the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project Mission, the historical Soviet/American “handshake in space”.

The Stafford Air & Space Center contains within its impressive 35,000 square foot interior many Smithsonian quality displays. It boasts an actual giant Titan II rocket launch vehicle on display along with the massive Mark 6 reentry vehicle which contained a 9 megaton nuclear warhead. Numerous items on loan from the Smithsonian include a Gemini flight suit, space food and survival items flown to the moon on Apollo 11, and the actual flight pressure suit General Stafford wore on the first flight of the lunar module to the moon, Apollo 10. There are also flown aircraft, including a T-38, F-86 “Sabre,” Russian MiG21R and an F16 “Fighting Falcon” with bombs and sidewinder missiles. Full-size replicas displayed include the Wright Flyer, Spirit of St. Louis, Apollo Command Module, and Gemini spacecraft.

Currently the Stafford Air & Space Museum has on display a German-made WWII V-2 rocket engine and a new major display titled, “Rockets and Satellite Launchers of the World”.